California Assembly Committee Approves Bill To Establish Prescription Drug Reimportation Web Site
The California Assembly Health Committee on Tuesday voted to approve legislation (AB 1957) that would require the state Department of Health Services to establish a Web site to facilitate reimportation of lower-cost, U.S.-made prescription drugs from Canadian online pharmacies that meet certain safety requirements, the Ventura County Star reports. The Web site would list prices of drugs in Canada and the United States and direct state residents to Canadian pharmacies that have been screened by state officials, are licensed in their provinces, require prescriptions from patients' physicians, only sell drugs approved by Canadian public health agencies and do not require customers to sign a liability waiver. In addition, the bill would require the state Department of General Services to create a pilot program through which state agencies could purchase drugs from Canada. State Assembly member Dario Frommer (D), the bill's sponsor, said the legislation is necessary because "Americans are paying more than any other country for prescription medications, and there's no good reason why." Ignacio Hernandez, a spokesperson for California Medical Association, said CMA is supporting the bill, adding, "Physicians are concerned about the costs of drugs and doing whatever we can to reduce them. This would allow Californians who choose on their own to go to Canada to choose safe avenues to make their purchases." However, Fred Noteware of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said that facilitating prescription drug purchases through a state-run Web site could cause liability problems for the state. The bill now goes to the Business and Professions Committee, which must act on it by April 23, for consideration (Herdt, Ventura County Star, 4/14).
North Carolina, Washington
Summaries of reimportation news in North Carolina and Washington state are provided below.
- North Carolina: Alamance County Manager David Cheek said he is considering a plan to provide county employees with information about reimporting prescription drugs from a Canadian supplier to help offset rising health care costs, the AP/Raleigh News & Observer reports. The plan is similar to a program implemented by Caldwell County, N.C., in which county officials share information with employees about services provided by the Canadian online pharmacy CanaRx but do not have an official contract with the company. Cheek said county officials have "just taken the first peek" at their reimportation proposal (AP/Raleigh News & Observer, 4/14).
- Washington: Prescription drugs are sometimes cheaper at independent pharmacies in the Puget Sound region of Washington state than they are at chain pharmacies or Canadian online pharmacies, according to a consumer report released Wednesday in the spring/summer edition of the Puget Sound Consumers' Checkbook, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. Researchers examined prices of 17 drugs at 41 online pharmacies and at 151 pharmacies and 15 drugstore chains in the Puget Sound region. They found that prices at independent neighborhood pharmacies were on average 5% cheaper than chain stores and that some independent pharmacies' prices "even beat mail-order pharmacies when including shipping costs," the Post-Intelligencer reports (Heckman, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 4/14).
